Foxy

A Voice TO Parliament ? Or A Voice IN Parliament ? i.e. as a third chamber ? In addition to the various Indigenous members of Parliaments who have Voices ?

Joe

Dear Joe,

They ask only to be heard in decisions made about them.
A practical reform. Not a veto, but a voice.

You point out that there are already Indigenous MPs in
Parliament - as though this is a substitute for empowering
First Nations with a voice in their affairs.

These MPs, like any MPs, must represent their constituents
their electorates and their political parties - in all
their ethnic diversity. Those MPs are not representative
of the First Nations of Australia, they are representative
of all Australians who voted for them - like a Greek-Australian,
or an Indian-Australian or a white Australian MP.

The difference is that parliament makes specific laws and policies
about Indigenous people. There is no native title act for
Indian-Australians or Lithuanian-Australians like myself, because
my ancestors were not dispossessed of land in Australia. Nor has
there been an Indian-Australian intervention.

Anyway - you get the picture.

You can guarantee that Jacinta Price won't get a guernsey on any 'voice to Parliament'. She might just go against the activist narrative.

Foxy,

I'm sorry, but I cannot see how a 3rd chamber of parliament that is restricted to one race is going to be anything other than divisive. The indigenous already have the same voice in parliament that any other citizen has.

Considering the collapse of the last indigenous representative body due to infighting and corruption, enshrining this in the constitution seems like a very bad idea.

Foxy,

Given that your notion of a third chamber will 'elect' only the same bunch of incompetent and corrupt hacks (apart from a few honorable exceptions) who have so totally mismanaged thirty billion dollars year after year, for no significant improvements (did someone mention Einstein and his definition of insanity ?), how will that differ from the dreadful days of ATSIC except by giving a similar body much more power to vet - implicitly, frowns and regretful shakes of the head against disapproved legislation, smiles for approved legislation - any proposed legislation ?

The Indigenous elite live in power-trip bubbles; the ordinary Indigenous people need voices, media which engages them and their concerns for real issues. So, if another media outlet is not needed, I can only hope that the current media serving Indigenous people and gauging their opinions and views can be more courageous.

Joe

Academics have concocted a totally false image of aboriginal culture that has come to dominate all discourse and seen millions of dollars being put into indigenous studies centres, research, courses, colleges and propping up living museums in totally uneconomic, isolated camps misnamed 'communities'. The elites of the aboriginal industry have assumed for themselves a pseudo culture that carries with it all the pomp and circumstance of a nation - one that never existed.

A common culture of all aboriginal people has been invented, as has an unreal society of liberty and fraternity among the nomadic tribes and family groups of the original inhabitants. The truth is regular warfare, raiding, porous borders, brutality and the abandonment of the unwanted.

These historical facts have not prevented the fabrication of an ancient Utopia, the aim of which is not to reflect past truths, but to set up for apartheid in the future